Xerox to Deliver PARC Magic to Startups

In an effort to collaborate with more outside talent, the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) on Friday announced the formation of an incubator that will provide PARC research expertise to technology startups.

In an effort to collaborate with more outside talent, the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) on Friday announced the formation of an incubator that will provide PARC research expertise to technology startups.

The venture, dubbed Startup@PARC, will bring in selected companies to partner with PARC researchers, with the intent that the teams fully develop their products and connect then with venture capitalists for additional funding, said Mark Bernstein, president and center director of PARC.

PARC was founded in 1970 as part of Xerox Research and was incorporated as an independent research business in 2002. Its work has led to the development of technologies like laser printing, Ethernet and the graphical user interface (GUI).

PARC has traditionally developed its products in-house, but recent work with two successful startups prompted inquiries from other interested parties.

"We thought the best thing to do would be to create a formal program to invite entrepreneurs to talk with us and see if there is a good fit between competencies and whether we can accelerate what it is they're trying to bring to market," Bernstein said.

Starting Friday, interested startups can go to the PARC Web site and fill out a submission page for consideration, according to Bernstein. PARC will be looking for companies on which PARC can "have a significant impact," he said.

The effort is "not looking for people with widgets or 'me-too' ideas," Bernstein said. "We're looking for people who really have unique ideas [that] match the competencies that we have here. It's actually looking at bringing entrepreneurs in at a fairly pre-investment stage to develop their ideas."

Fifty- or hundred-employee companies who are looking for their B round of financing need not apply, Bernstein said. Ideally, participants would be "startups with a few folks who have an idea, who have grounded first principles that are feasible and really need the horsepower" that PARC can provide, he said.

One such venture is SolFocus, a solar technology company that was incubated at PARC and has thus far raised $84 million in capital. It will enable solar energy to be cost-competitive with conventional energy sources via photovoltaic technology.

PARC got involved with SolFocus quite by accident when two of its researchers sat with SolFocus employees during a lunch break at a California conference. They started talking about the venture, and SolFocus was invited to the PARC facility, where researchers have developed the product over the last eighteen months, Bernstein said. SolFocus recently finished its second round of financing and has opened its own offices near PARC headquarters.

PARC also provided assistance to San Francisco-based Powerset, which developed an adaptive search engine that is not bound to the traditional keyword model. "We contributed our patents, our code and our research talent to help get them started," Bernstein said.

The success of SolFocus and Powerset led to the creation of Startup@PARC, Bernstein said. PARC's expertise can help startups with "everything from having a place to be, connecting with [venture capitalists], angel investors and tech competencies," he said.

The venture does not have set deadlines by which participants must produce concrete results. "We expect each engagement to be unique [and] to have a fair amount of customization on this," Bernstein said. "It is not a cookie cutter process."

In terms of financing, PARC is "putting our own funds in terms of research talent" and the intellectual property that PARC is investing, he said. "We can get them in front of venture funding and help support the business as it goes forward. It is not as if once they're funded, we don't have anything more to offer."

PARC is "not extraordinarily adept at being able to sell in the market" but it is "very good at getting the technology to where it's engaging with customers and responding to needs," Bernstein said.

Chloe Albanesius has been with PCMag.com since April 2007, most recently as Executive Editor for News and Features. Prior to that, she worked for a year covering financial IT on Wall Street for Incisive Media. From 2002 to 2005, Chloe covered technology policy for The National Journal's Technology Daily in Washington, DC. She has held internships at NBC's Meet the Press, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press office in London, Roll Call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from American University...
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